Thanasi Kokkinakis hopeful of Nick Kyrgios reunion at Wimbledon

Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios pose after their Australian Open men's doubles victory Credit: Alamy

Thanasi Kokkinakis has hinted that Nick Kyrgios will make his long-awaited return to action after the French Open, and he is optimistic that he will be able to team up with his good friend in the doubles at Wimbledon.

Kyrgios has not played any competitive tennis this year as he missed the Australian Open after undergoing knee surgery. He was initially expected to make his return during the Sunshine Double, but he ended up missing both the Indian Wells Open and Miami Open as his recovery took longer than expected.

His comeback date was then pushed back to the French Open, but last week it was confirmed he would miss the clay-court Grand Slam after he cut his foot during an armed robbery incident at his house.

It is now a case of wait and see if he will play a full grass-court season, which gets underway on June 12, but Kokkinakis says things are “looking positive”.

“I think the plan for him is to be ready for Wimbledon and play a few lead-ins. Stuttgart was up there, I think. I’m not sure if he’s going to Queen’s or Halle (both June 19-25), but hopefully he’s ready,” he told the Australian Associated Press.

“By all accounts, his recovery has been a bit slower than he thought, but I think he’s on the mend now and it’s looking positive for the grass.”

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Dubbed the “Special Ks”, Kyrgios and Kokkinakis enjoyed a rollercoaster ride at last year’s Australian Open as they won the men’s doubles title at their home Grand Slam.

A couple of months later they also won the Atlanta Open, but they only played a handful of matches as a pair after that and then missed their title defence at Melbourne Park due to Kyrgios’ injury.

They now hope to reunite at Wimbledon, which gets underway July 3.

“The plan right now is to play Wimbledon, obviously health permitting,” Kokkinakis said. “We’re going to sign in to the doubles there – we actually spoke about that on Thursday.

“We haven’t played for a long time, and I haven’t played much doubles at all this year as it isn’t as much a priority for me this year, but I still want to play in some of the bigger tournaments because it’s still a fun experience with him.

“I’m playing here in Paris with [German Jan-Lennard] Struff here – so we’ll see how that goes.

“If Nick wasn’t ready for Wimbledon, I’d have played with him again at Wimbledon, but Nick’s always up there as my choice of doubles partner.

“Nick and I get on really well, it’s more than just having good results for us, we enjoy our time on the courts together – and it was a friendship first and that’s why we play doubles in the first place.”

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